IE201 Test 1
Many orgs take on too many projects without regard for the limited availability of dev resources. To prevent this, U&E suggests a planning process that helps the org make efficient use of its resources by pursuing only those projects that can reasonably be completed within the budget restrictions. what is this planning process?
Aggregate Planning
What is pipeline management?
Determining the timing and sequence of projects
Which of the 5 ways to express the values for the metrics in a product specification should be avoided if possible?
Exactly X
What are the 7 basic techniques for simulating the identification of opps?
Follow a personal passion, compile bug lists, pull opps from capabilities, study customers, consider implication of trends, imitate but better, mine your resources
What are the 5 steps in the process of identifying customer needs
Gather raw data from customers, interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs, organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary and secondary needs, establish the relative importance of the needs, and reflect on the results and the process
In the story "A Memento of Your Service", several factors contributed to the captain's mental errors. What were 3 factors that cause these errors?
He did not get enough sleep, he was overly confident in his ability to steer the ship through dangerous seas, he was under extreme time constraints due to the tidal conditions at their destination
What 3 functions are almost always central to a product development?
Marketing, Design, Manufacturing
What are the 4 steps in the process for establishing target specifications?
Prepare the list of metrics, collect competitive benchmarking info, set ideal and marginally acceptable target values
When customers and users are asked about their needs, they will suggest specific tech solutions or product features. What should we do when this happens?
Probe for the underlying need the customer believes the suggested solution would satisfy
In the story "Chutes and Ladders", what was Arturo doing that ultimately caused his death?
Shaking rabbits from an aluminum irrigation pipe
In the story "Rental Cart", why did the pilot have difficulty flying his airplane?
The entire cockpit of the plane had been redesigned without his knowledge
Tech tends to evolve from initial emergence when the performance is relatively low, through rapid growth in performance based on experience, and finally approach maturity where some natural tech limit is reached and the product may become obsolete. Which conceptual tool illustrates this concept by plotting the performance of the products in a product category over time?
The tech S-curve
In the story "Rental Cart", when the pilot was scrutinizing the control panel, he was comforted when he discovered the hand throttle right where he put it, "right where God intended it to be" What was meant by the pilot's statement concerning the position of the throttle?
The throttle was right where the user expected it to be
In the story "Business in Bhopal", many safety devices designed to prevent the escape of the MIC gas failed to prevent the gas from escaping. What were 3 of these devices?
The vent gas scrubber, flare tower, water curtain
In the story "Return from Salyut", why were the cosmonauts unable to completely close the pressure equalization valve?
Their limited movements allowed them to close the valve only half way before they lost consciousness
Why are lead users particularly useful sources of data?
They are often able to explain their needs, because they have had to struggle with the inadequacies of existing products
What are the 3 reasons why structured methods for completing product development activities are valuable?
They make the decision process explicit, act as checklists, and are self-documenting
In the story "Rental Cart", how might the designers of the P-47 Thunderbolt best have prevented the problem the pilot encountered?
Through standardization of the locations of design of the cockpit displays and controls
What are the 4 factors of Pipeline management?
Timing of product introductions, Technology readiness, Market Readiness, Competition
In the story "Return from Salyut", how did the cosmonauts realize that the cabin was depressurizing?
Water vapor and dust particles suddenly appeared in the cabin and the spacecraft began to spin unexpectedly
In the story "Business in Bhopal", what caused the volitatile reaction in the MIC tank 610 that allowed poisonous MIC gas to escape and kill at least 2,500 residents of Bhopal?
Water was mixed with the MIC in the tank
What are matrix organizations?
a hybrid of functional and project, typically has 2 supervisors
What is a tech road map?
a way to represent the expected availability and future use of various technologies relevant to the product being considered, resulting in a diagram showing a product's key functional elements and the sequence of technologies expected to implement these elements over a given period of time.
In the story "A Memento of Your Service", what did the design of the control lever next to the ship's steering have to do with the ship's malfunction?
allowed fro simple human error
What are the 5 ways to express the values for the metrics in a product specification?
at least X, at most X, Between X and Y, Exactly X, a set of discrete values
What makes up the Mission Statement?
brief description of the product, benefit proposition, key business goals, target markets, assumptions and constraints, stakeholders
With which two stakeholders dose the stakeholder list begin?
end user and external customer
What advice does U&E give about pulling opps from capabilities as a technique for generating opps?
exploit unique capabilities, core competencies, and competitive advantage, meaning it is valuable, rare, and not easily imitated or substitued
What are the 5 guidelines for writing need statements?
express in terms of what the product has to do not how, express the need as specfically as the raw data, use positive phrasing, express the need as an attribute of the product, avoid must and should
Which organizational structure offers more potential for success if cutting-edge disciplinary expertise is very important?
functional
What are 3 basic ways to increase the number of excellent opps that are identified?
generate a large number of opps, seek high quality of the opps generated, and create high variance in the quality of opps
In the story "Chutes and Ladders", how did Arthur die?
he touched an aluminum irrigation pipe to a live power line
In the story "Return from Salyut", the cosmonauts did not have their space suits, which could have saved their lives, becuase there was not enough room in the capsule for the three men, their suits, and the support equipment. The decision to place three men in the capsule used the space capsule:
in a way other that what it was designed for
What are 3 methods of gathering raw data from customers?
interview, focus groups, observing the product in use
What advice does U&E give about considering implications of trends as a technique for generating opps?
list social, environmental, technological, or economic trends and then imagine innovation opps made possible by each one
What advice does U&E give about following your passion as a technique for generating opps?
list your passions
What advice does U&E give about compiling bug lists as a technique for generating opps?
list/photograph every annoyance you encounter over a period of days of weeks and then pick the most universal and vexing ones and dream up solultion
In which covered situation does the firm begin product development with a market opp and then use whatever available tech are required to satisfy the market need?
market-pull
In which covered situation does the generic product dev process apply without modifications?
market-pull
Which of the 3 functions that are central to a product development often facilitates the identification of product opps, the definition of market segments, and the identification of customer needs?
marketing
What are the 5 guidlines for writing metrics?
metrics should be complete, metrics should be dependent variables, metrics should be practical, metrics can be subjective, metrics should include the popular criteria for comparison in the marketplace
A particular doc displays the relationship between needs and metrics. The rows of this doc correspond to the customer needs and the columns correspond to the metrics. What is the name of this doc?
needs-metrics matrix
What advice does U&E give about studying customers as a technique for generating opps?
observe what potential customers do to identify latent needs
What are project orgs?
organizational links are primarily among those who work on the same project, strong bond between team members
In which covered situation does the production process place strict constraints on the properties of the product, so that the product design cannot be separated, even at the concept phase, from the production process design?
process-intensive
What is the process-intensive product situation?
product is highly constrained by a production process that is specified from the start, or both product and process must be developed together
Which organizational structure offers more potential for success if cross-functional integration is very important?
project
Which organizational structure offers more potential for success if product dev speed is very important?
project
two basic approaches to determining the relative importance of each need. 1) relying on the consensus of the team based on experience with the customers, 2) basing the importance assessment on customer surveys. Which method is preferred and why?
relying on the consensus of the team because they have become experts on the design problem and resulting needs
What advice does U&E give about mining your sources as a technique for generating opps?
sources include lead users, appropriate social networks, university/government labs, online idea submission
What advice does U&E give about imitating (but better) as a technique for generating opps?
sources of opps for imitation include media and marketing activities of other firms, de-commoditzed commodities, drive an innovation "down market", and import geographically isolated innovations
What type of metric should you use to evaluate the following need: "The display of the IE department-related info is attractive"?
subjective
What is the market-pull situation?
team begins with market opp and selects appropriate tech, includes planning, concept dev., system-level design, detail design, testing and refinement, and production ramp-up phases
What is the tech-push situation?
team begins with new tech, then finds an appropriate market, planning phase involves matching tech and market, concept dev assumes given tech
In which covered situation does the firm begin with a new proprietary tech and look for an appropriate market for the tech?
tech push
In the story "Set Phasers on Stun", Mary Beth, the radiotherapy technician, did not receive feedback that Ray Cox was hit with multiple high voltage "shocks". What prevented her from receiving feedback?
the TV connected to a video camera in the treatment room was not plugged in and the intercom between the 2 rooms did not work
In the story "Chutes and Ladders", how was the exact cause of the accident determined?
the accident investigator interviewing the farm workers
In the story "Set Phasers on Stun", what was the primary cause of the error message shown on the technician's screen and the accident that followed?
the designers' inadequate consideration of users' actions
In the story "Business in Bhopal", why did Suman Dey not know the actual pressure in the MIC tank 610 when he realized something was wrong with the tank?
the gauge only went to 55 psi, so it was unclear that the pressure was actually higher than 55 psi
What are primary/secondary needs?
the most general needs/describe in greater detail primary needs, equally important
What are functional orgs?
the organizational links are primarily among those who perform similar functions, weak bond between team members
In the story "Return from Salyut", the problem with the pressure equalization valve mechanism was cause by the designers' lock of consideration of what?
the physical limitations of the cosmonauts during a craft malfunction
What are target product specifications?
the precise description of what the product has to do, consisting of a metric and a value
The product planning process considers product deveopment opps identified by many sources and identifies the portfolio of products to be dev by orgs and the timing of their intro to the market. What identifies this portfolio of products?
the product plan
What is the platform product situation?
the team assumes that the new product will be built around an established tech subsystem, concept dev assumes a proven tech platform
